Firehouse Kids: Unlikely Brothers
by SophiaTab
Summary: This is a little prequel to Firehouse Kids: Severide's Daughter that takes place in current time roughly eighteen years before the events of Severide's Daughter. It will explore a related Firehouse family and take readers up to the night Darden and K2 were conceived which is why it's rated M.


_**Firehouse Kids: Unlikely Brothers**_

**Chapter 1**

Kelly Severide knew something was up by the way Otis walked across the station. That wasn't real confidence radiating out from the man's swagger. Artificial courage leaked from every pore. The guy had definitely pumped himself up for something. Kelly knew Otis had probably seen Katie while he was out on vacation. Hopefully he wasn't going to do something really dweebish like ask permission to send her emails. Otis stopped and gazed up directly into Kelly's eyes. His face was a total deadpan.

"Hit me," Otis said.

It had to be a stunt for the podcasts. "Not funny enough," Kelly said.

Otis tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm serious. Hit me. I want your best punch."

Kelly struggled not to smirk. "No you don't."

Otis tapped him again. That was beginning to be annoying. "Come on? Are you a wuss now? Hit me."

"You're crazy," Kelly responded. He tried to step away, but Otis got in his face.

"Your father is a drunk and a philanderer," Otis said.

Okay, that was edging close to the line, but Kelly could play the smartass game too because whatever joke this was he wasn't falling for it. "Tell me something I don't know."

Otis inhaled deep. "You're mother's a whore."

Those were fighting words, but he didn't raise his fist to Otis yet because this was the absolutely most insane thing Kelly had seen for a while. Was Otis having a brain aneurysm?

Then Otis shoved him in the chest. "You are a wuss that's afraid to admit he's in love with a lesbian."

Kelly wasn't sure how many times his fist slammed into Otis's face before Clark and Capp wrestled him to the floor. The world was red. Sirens exploded in his ears, but he could tell by the reactions of the people around him no alarm was going off.

"What the hell?" Capp exclaimed.

Kelly realized he was shaking. Breathing pulled iron from his lungs and his heart pounded. He heard Otis in the distance.

"It's not like I am not manning up," Otis shouted, but Mouch and Cruz pulled him away.

"Are you all right? What happened?" Clark said.

There was no way in hell he was going to answer that question. Luckily Chief Boden appeared on the scene. "Severide, take a personal day." He didn't say anything else. Nobody mentioned Otis. The little punk started this, whatever this was. What was going on? Shay hustled him into the car, but took the driver's seat.

As Shay drove, a jackhammer went to work on Kelly's chest. He tried to make sense of what had happened. Otis wasn't stupid. He knew Kelly would beat him senseless in a real fight, so why had he started one. And Otis had known exactly what would push him over the edge. It made him wonder just how obvious his feelings were sometimes. Real fear mixed with the anger and confusion in his head. At least Shay hadn't overheard the words that provoked the fight. Nobody had, but it still terrified him. There were some secrets a man took to his grave because otherwise they ruined friendships and lives. No matter how much wanting Shay, but not having Shay hurt at times, it beat the alternative of Shay leaving him forever. At least, she wasn't asking in any questions about what Otis said. After a while he realized his cell phone was vibrating. The message box was stacked to the brim. He tried listening to a few of them, but they were all incoherent rants from Katie's mother, Mrs. Nolan. Apparently, either he or Bennie or possibly all firemen in the world were assholes now.

"Has everyone gone insane?" he asked Shay.

She shrugged. "Do you want some coffee? Let's get some coffee."

She didn't drive to a coffee shop. Instead they went to an apartment complex. It seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't recognize it immediately.

"Where are we?" Kelly asked.

Shay reached over and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Outside Otis and Cruz's apartment building."

"I am not apologizing to the guy," Kelly said.

"No one expects you to," Shay said.

"Then why are we here?" he demanded.

"Katie needs someone to talk to other than her mother or Benny right now," Shay said.

"Katie's in Colorado," Kelly said. And even though missing his little sister was a knife wound to the gut that was the best place for her. It would be easier for her to rebuild her life and put the rape behind her in Colorado.

Shay kind of smiled, but at the same time kind of didn't. "She came back with Otis."

Katie, back in Chicago. How come nobody told him this? And what the hell was Otis doing in the middle of his and his little sister's lives. "You mean she came back at the same time Otis came back from vacation," Kelly said.

Another funny look from Shay. "That's for Katie and Otis to decide." Shay got out of the car, opened his door and guided him out of the car. She didn't usually get this close anymore. He could feel her arm burn into his back and she let their fingers intertwine. Right now her body was almost wrapped around him. He would follow her to Otis and Cruz's apartment to keep this closeness. He would follow her into hell for this. When they stopped at a door Shay's eyes became pools he could drown in. "I know you love, Katie. I know you only want what is best for her, but only she should decide what she wants to do with her life."

When Shay rang the bell, Peter Mill's mother answered the door. The day had more surprises. Still, Mrs. Mills was a nice woman. Her warm, maternal gaze fell on Kelly the way a woman's gaze rarely did. "I'm glad you're here, Lieutenant Severide, but you are not coming through this door unless you promise, no more fighting."

He nodded.

Mrs. Mills smiled like the Madonna. "Brian is very nice young man," she said letting them into the apartment.

Brian? Who the hell was Brian? Oh yeah, Brian was Otis's real name. Sometimes he forgot, especially on days like this, especially when Shay was this close. But it made sense that Cruz's mother might know him as Brian rather than a firehouse nickname. "Yeah, I guess.'' _If he hadn't tried to start a fight with me less than an hour ago. _He kept that comment to himself.

Mrs. Mills kept talking about Otis. "I believe him when he says he didn't know. You and Benny should cut him some slack."

Kelly could see Otis and Katie together on the couch. Otis had a couple of sutures on one eyebrow. The eye beneath was black. A couple of support bandages had been laid across his nose and his lower lip was busted. Katie held an ice pack against the side of his face. They looked cute together in a way most real world couples didn't, even if they appeared to be arguing.

"I still say in the church," Otis said.

"Not like I am," Katie replied.

"We'll say you broke your ankle. I'll borrow a wheelchair. You can sit in that and no one will notice a thing." Otis said.

_What the hell were they talking about?_

Katie noticed him first. She didn't get up from the couch to greet him however. Instead she pointed to chair beside the couch. "Hi, Kelly, please sit down, so we can talk."

"Why didn't you stay in Colorado? You got no bad memories in Colorado?" Kelly asked.

"I've got no good ones there either. I grew up in this city. It's my home. I'm not going to let one violent thug take that away from me." She gestured toward the chair again. "Kelly, would you please sit down. It would be so much easier to talk to you right now if you were sitting down."

"What's going on?" Kelly demanded.

Otis took Katie's hand. She looked up at Kelly and her gaze didn't waver. "I'm five months pregnant."

Pregnant! By that scumbag bastard rapist Keeler! Things like that weren't supposed to happen to good people like his little sister Katie who as far as Kelly could tell had never hurt a soul in her life. Dammit! There were supposed to be pills for this sort of thing. Katie was practically a child herself. Why the hell, hadn't Keeler gone after him? He knew the answer to that. Keeler was a coward and a thug. No wonder Katie's mom had been raging on the phone. It wasn't right for Katie to suffer like this. A tornado ripped through Kelly Severide. If he had stayed out of his little sister's life, Keeler wouldn't have known about her. She would be somewhere happily cooking her way into a wonderful life, instead of traumatized and pregnant before she even had a real chance in the world.

His legs started to fail, but he didn't reach for the chair. He went to the floor on his knees before the little sister whose life he had just about wrecked. "I'm sorry, Katie. I am so goddamn sorry."

"It's okay. It's okay." Katie said.

Even now she was comforting him! Mrs. Nolan was right. Severide men were bastards. It shouldn't be like this. He had to be the strong one now for his little sister and become the brother she needed. "How's your mother reacting?"

The sorrow welling in Katie's eyes was enough to cleave him in two. "She wanted me to have an abortion. Now she wants me to put it up for adoption. She says being a single mother is too hard for me and she's the expert that should know that."

Kelly stared at his sister's hand resting on her stomach. There was the beginning of a bump that was his future nephew or niece. Katie's childhood had been abandonment by Benny coupled with lack of attention by her mother, so it was easy to understand how she could grow attached to this baby no matter what the circumstances of conception had been. He could also imagine how much Ms. Nolan didn't want her illegitimate grandchild conceived in the rape of her illegitimate daughter intruding into the new life she had finally made for herself. As for Benny, well he could be counted to come through for the spectacular, like getting street justice on Keeler, but he wasn't all that reliable in the everyday world of bills and babysitting. Meanwhile Katie had a cooking school degree and maybe two-hundred dollars in her purse. But he had a job. No, he had a career, a good reliable, respectable career that made him an ideal role model for any future nephew or niece and gave him a schedule that offered plenty of opportunities for side jobs to make extra money. Katie and kid could live with him forever for all he cared. The only downside was how it might affect his relationship with Shay. Shay loved kids. He would still see her from time to time, but not as much. He would eat the pain because no matter what his nephew or niece was going to have a good life and a real family. He placed his hand over his sister's. "You can count on me, one-hundred percent."

Otis started talking. "This isn't meant as an excuse, but I didn't know about the baby until I went to Colorado. If you or Benny want to beat me up again, I'll understand."

Kelly's attention was momentarily diverted. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Otis was calm. There was no false bravery in his face. Instead, it was the real thing, not bravado and arrogance, but a calm steadiness. "Katie and I had sex the night of the blackout, in the fire station, and later on that morning back at the apartment. I'm the father of this baby."

"Brian," Katie began like she was about to object. The unspoken reality of the rape was smoke hanging in the air around them. It leaked into Kelly's head threatening to cut off the oxygen again.

Otis's gaze snapped sharp in Katie's direction, but it wasn't the death glares or venomous glances, Kelly had witnessed between too many couples, including his own parents. Instead it was a resolute firmness, a man standing up to be a rock Katie could cling to in a time of need. "You're my girlfriend and I love you. I'm the father of this baby."

Whoa, the crisis parameters had shifted, but in a good way. His barely out of adolescence little sister wasn't carrying the child of a rapist scumbag. She got pregnant with her boyfriend who was a brother fire fighter which meant he could support a family. For all his nerdiness, Otis was a responsible guy. He would probably be a great father. At least, vastly superior to the example Benny had set for him and Katie. Okay, Otis wasn't Rescue Squad, but he was one of the brave, one of Chicago's best. He took that beating earlier like a man. Christ! That had been absolutely brilliant of Otis to start a fight with him immediately after returning from Colorado with Katie. And this baby certainly wasn't the first fire fighter's kid that was conceived in a fire station during shift. Benny would probably brag about it instead of trying to say his first grandchild was very premature. The smoke was starting to clear from his head and he could see a future that wasn't bad. "You should get married soon."

Otis pounced on the idea. "That is exactly what I have been saying since we left Colorado. I wanted to detour through Las Vegas. They've got a model of the bridge of the SS. Enterprise available for weddings there."

"The Enterprise is _Star Trek_. You're a _Battlestar Galactica _fan." Katie said.

"I like them both, but there isn't a _Galactica_ bridge available like that," Otis explained.

That was a really cute exchange to overhear. It was the kind of thing Kelly could tell a future nephew or niece. He had forgotten how much Katie really got Otis and how many interests they had in common. They would make a really cute couple and maybe his little sister's life wouldn't be completely ruined by what had happened.

"We could rig something up at _Molly's_," Kelly suggested. "They've already got all those white lights dangling from the ceiling.

"This isn't the 1950s. I'm not going to be shunned for having it out of wedlock?" Katie said.

"That's not what this is about," Otis said.

"Oh, really, then what's this rush to the altar about?" Katie said.

"Health insurance," Otis replied. He took both Katie's hands his. "If we get married right now, you and the baby go on my health insurance next business day. That's full pre-natal, your choice of doctors, and a good hospital. It's a lot better than Medicaid."

Otis really was responsible. He hadn't even thought that far enough ahead to consider how they were going to pay Katie's medical bills. "The man's talking sense, Katie. You need health insurance."

Mrs. Mills appeared again with coffee, tea and a whole lot of healthy food which nobody could resist least of all Katie who was eating for two. The food tabled some of Katie's resistance for awhile because they were talking when, not if, she and Otis were getting married. He got it that Katie was embarrassed about saying vows with how her body looked now, but a lot of people got married in front of a judge with two witnesses. He would sell his soul to be in that position with Shay, but that was only a fantasy. Katie's wedding was going to happen and he would shake down Benny for whatever money they needed because his nephew of niece was going to have a father worth having.

When they got back into the car, Kelly turned to Shay. "Did you know about this?"

"Katie called me last night when they got back," Shay said.

"My sister called you first?" Kelly said.

"She needed someone else with a uterus to talk to. That's why Mrs. Mills came over. Reinforcements." Shay explained.

Mrs. Mills against Mrs. Nolan, that was almost overkill. Nothing meant more than family to that woman. He remembered how she stood up for Otis too. He would probably have to refer to Otis as Bryan from time to time when they were away from the firehouse. After all, he was going to be . . . . ? Family? Life was definitely on the edge of change. "Did I make the right decision?"

"It's not your decision to make, Kelly. This is between Katie and Otis." Shay said.

"But I know you have opinion," Kelly said.

Shay gazed at him with stone somber eyes. "I think Otis is the only one not referring to that baby as it."


End file.
